"Eneas," she announced, "I have decided to adopt a baby."
To the consular mind of Mr. Grant such a procedure evoked endless complications in the future. His mind leaped forward twenty years to the time when this baby would require a passport, and he wondered if there were a special form for adopted babies. He seemed to fancy vaguely that there was, and he asked what the nationality of the baby would be.
"A Catholic baby," Aunt Cuckoo proclaimed.
Her husband explained to her that she must not confuse religion with nationality, and then suddenly with a grimace of real ferocity he said:
"I hope you don't intend to adopt an Irish baby?"
"A Catholic baby," Aunt Cuckoo repeated obstinately.
"This kipper is rather strong," said Eneas.
But it was not strong enough to divert Aunt Cuckoo from her own trail.
"I spoke to Father Maloney about it this morning after mass," she persisted.
Jasmine was wondering to herself what part she would be called upon to play with regard to the baby. But whatever she had to do would be less tiring than combing Angora cats or trying to keep up with Uncle Eneas on the slopes of Hampstead Heath. Uncle Eneas protested all day for a week against the baby; Aunt Cuckoo appealed to St. Teresa, secured her support by a novena, and defeated him once more. Father Maloney discovered a Catholic bank-clerk, the victim of chronic alcoholism, who with the help of a tuberculous wife had brought into the world twelve children, the youngest of which, now ten months old, he secured for Aunt Cuckoo. At the formal conveyance of the baby Uncle Eneas asked whether it were a boy or a girl, and when Aunt Cuckoo replied that she did not know, he, apostrophizing heaven, wondered if ever since the world began a vaguer woman had walked the earth.
"It's a boy," said Father Maloney soothingly.
"Michael Francis Joseph Mary Aloysius," said Father Maloney.
"We'll call him Frank," Aunt Cuckoo decided, and her husband was almost appeased. He had not realized that anything so ordinary could be extracted from that highly coloured mosaic of names.
At first Aunt Cuckoo was glad of Jasmine's help, and of the advice of the very latest product in professional nurses. But when she found that the nurse had theories in the bringing up of babies that by no means accorded with her own sentimental views, and that Jasmine was inclined to support the nurse, she began to be a little resentful of her niece.